Warm Sunday Lunch

So here I am with another post – I wasn’t sure I would be able to post another one so soon - Thank you all for going through the earlier post, for the comments, for all the wishes J It has given me the courage to try another post.

As mentioned in my first entry, there are some good cooks in the family. The next dish from the bachelor’s den is a recipe I learnt from one of those cooks – my mom’s younger sister. With all the energy that I got from my friends’ positive responses for my brinjal dry fry, I wanted the next attempt to be really appealing. So I decided it to be the delicious butter chicken my mema (mom’s younger sister) had made. From my frequent visits and stay in Chennai, I had tasted a lot of her delicious savory dishes. Though a mute spectator while she cooked, I remember being very eloquent about it when I tasted the dish.  

When I finally cooked this, it turned out to be my friend cum ex-roomie’s favorite and I am posting this recipe today for her. This time I have some pictures of the dish as I made it again today (technically it is already Monday, so should I say yesterday?) for my son and myself. Most of you who knows my hubby and me will be aware of our love for chicken, however since he was away on a team lunch today; I required only half a kilo of chicken ;)

Couldn’t stop myself from mentioning about the utensil and a main ingredient before going to the recipe – I love cooking in clay pots – I think it gives an intimacy to the food. Back then, I used a normal pan. With a diet conscious family, butter is a bit of a luxury these days; so I have not really been that generous with it this time.

Ingredients

Chicken pieces – ½ a kilo

Marinade

Turmeric – ¼ tea spoon
Red chilli powder – 1 tea spoon
Lemon juice – ½ tea spoon
Salt to taste

Gravy

Butter – 1 ½  tablespoon
Onion – 2 medium sized – finely chopped
Green Chilli – 2 nos.
Garlic well crushed – 1 full pod (I love garlic in my dishes)
Ginger – 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Green cardamom – 2 nos
Tomato – 1 medium sized – finely chopped
Coriander powder – 1 tea spoon
Red chilli powder – ¼ tea spoon
Garam masala – a pinch
Chicken masala – 1 tea spoon
Cashewnuts – 10 to 12 nos – crushed into a powder
Coriander leaves – finely chopped

Recipe

• Wash the chicken. Once the water is completely drained out, marinade the chicken with salt, turmeric, red chilli powder (it will give a great red color to your dish if you add a little Kashmiri red chilli powder) and lemon juice. Keep it aside for about 30 minutes (great if you have time to keep it aside for about 2 hours).
• Heat the stove, keep a pan – once it is hot, add the butter.
• Sauté onion, green chilli, ginger, garlic paste and cook for a minute. (Add a pinch of salt to quicken the cooking process, at this stage).
• Add green cardamoms and the masala powders and sauté well till the raw masala smell goes off.
• Once onions become translucent, add chopped tomatoes. Let it cook till tomato starts releasing the oil.
• Add chicken pieces and let it cook in medium heat for about 10-12 minutes (careful about the heat if you are cooking in a clay pot – it could stick to the botton of the pan if the heat is too much, so don’t wander away).
• Add the cashew powder (I ground the cashews in a mixer – you can also use cashew paste – to make a paste, soak and grind the cashew nuts). This makes the gravy thicker. 
• Add coriander leaves and take off the heat.
• Add one tablespoon of butter, if you would like to be generous with it. 

         

         Serve hot with rice, roti. 

           

Garnishing note – This easy to make recipe makes a warm Sunday lunch all the more appealing – a great dish to impress your family/friends/guests J A great weekend has just gotten over. 

A beginner’s dish

Ever since childhood I have been teased for being a foodie, more so because the quantity of food I ate wasn’t directly proportional to my growth -  ‘”Where does all that food go?’’, Manasu nannavanam, ennale phalam undaavu (you should have a good heart, only then food shows its benefits) etc etc. However I must say I am very proud of the fact that I love food and have been able to dust these comments under the carpet and continue to live to eat J

I started this blog so I could share some of the experiments I have done in my kitchen and some of my views about the cuisines I have tasted. This is my first stab at writing something, so pardon me if you feel the flair is missing – I hope to improve with my posts.

Must admit, I wasn’t so much of a cook when I was a child – actually hadn’t even entered the kitchen except to eat. At home, mostly mom cooked or when she wasn’t around, grandmom cooked and I was happy to just enjoy whatever food was sent my way. I had an eye for detail though and was able to quickly pick what will be a special dish when cooked. There are some great cooks and dishes in the family and I have drawn a lot of inspiration from them. More about it in my future posts.

Cooking became a necessity when I moved out of my parents’ house and hence I began – with very simple rice, dal, poriyal (upperi as you say in Palakkadan Malayalam). When I received positive responses from my room mates, my next attempt was to venture into non veg dishes like butter chicken mainly to impress my friends ;) After marriage, with a foodie husband, we have explored a lot of new cuisines and tried a lot of it at home. Now as a mother of a two and a half year old, my challenge in cooking is to make creative dishes day in and day out.

I would like to share with you the first ever dish I remember making when I moved out of my parents’ place . While usually beginners go for an appealing dish, my first dish was Vazhuthananga upperi (brinjal dry fry). One might think why brinjal of all the veggies – I still cant remember, so don’t know why; my best guess is that was the only veggie available at home when my urge to cook kicked in.

So here is the recipe – well, that’s how I made it then J

Ingredients 

Oil – 1 tea spoon

Mustard seeds – ½ tea spoon

Cumin seeds – ½ tea spoon

Curry leaves -  5 to 6 no

Crushed chilli – 2 no

Finely diced onion – medium size – 1 no

Salt to taste

Turmeric – a pinch

Coriander powder – 1 ½ tea spoon

Brinjal – violet ones, medium sized – 3 no

Garam Masala – ¼ tea spoon

Coriander leaves

Recipe 

• Heat a pan, add oil.
• Add mustard seeds when the oil is hot.
• When mustard starts to splutter, add cumin seeds and curry leaves.
• Add onion and sauté. Add a pinch of salt now to let the onion cook faster. When the onion starts to turn translucent, add the crushed red chilli and sauté for another minute.
• At this stage, add coriander powder, turmeric powder and mix well.
• While this is getting cooked, wash and chop the brinjal into small pieces. Put the cut brinjals into a bowl of water (you can add a pinch of salt to the water too). The vegetable turns brownish red and bitter if not put into water immediately after cutting due to oxidation.
• Once the raw smell of coriander powder goes off, add the brinjal pieces and mix well. Once the brinjal is sautéd add a little of the same water that the brinjal was put in.
• Add salt – careful while adding salt now as there was a pinch of salt added earlier.
• Mix well and let it simmer in medium heat.
• Once the brinjal is cooked well, garnish with coriander leaves and garam masala powder and serve hot. 

 Can be served as a side dish for rice, roti.

Garnishing note – Bit of a dull veggie you would think, but brinjal can be an amazing beginner’s dish as my experience says – see it even ended up being the star in my first ever blog post J